Monday, December 24, 2012
Papua New Guinea Expedition Team
Trip Jennings (25): Trip Jennings is a professional kayaker and a co-owner and founder of the Epicocity Project. He has led whitewater first descents and expeditions in seven countries on three continents. The National Geographic Society recently awarded Trip the Adventure of the Year for his work on the first leg of Rivers in Demand in Papua New Guinea. Trip’s previous films have been selected into the Banff Film Festival’s World Tour, Telluride Film Festival and aired by National Geographic. Trip lives in Eugene, Oregon.
Kyle Dickman (24): Kyle Dickman is a producer and co-owner of the Epicocity Project and a freelance writer. His work has been published by National Geographic Adventure; he regularly contributes to Canoe and Kayak magazine and frequently covers environmental issues in the American west for Forest magazine. The Sierra Club has endorsed Kyle’s work in documentary film. Kyle has kayaked, climbed and traveled in more than twenty different countries. He lives in Eugene, Oregon.
Andy Maser (23): Andy Maser is a professional kayaker and producer with the Epicocity Project. Andy recently finished second in the collegiate nationals for kayaking and just completed a two-month tour promoting safe whitewater kayaking across the US. He has produced documentary films about Columbia and been a key member of four international kayaking expeditions. Andy lives in Portland, Oregon.
Brian Eustis (32): Brian Eustis recently returned from paddling the length of the Mekong River. Eustis’s film about this adventure, “The Mother of Waters”, was awarded Telluride’s Indomitable Spirit award and finished second in Banff Mountain Film Festivals People’s Choice award. He has logged first descents in China, led kayaking expeditions in Costa Rica and spends his weekends paddling his favorite backyard run, Washington’s Little White Salmon. Brian’s experience with foreign cultures and his skills on the water and with a camera make him an invaluable part of EP. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
Scott Feindel (32): Scott Feindel is a professional kayaker who paddles for Dagger and Kokatat. He has been paddling since he was 8 years old and since has kayaked rivers all across North America, South America, Norway, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. Scott lives in Calgary, Alberta.
Matt Fields Johnson (24): Matt FJ joined the PNG expedition as a photographer, a kayaker and an expert in ropes and rescue. Matt is studying photography at Bowling Green State University in Kentucky. He has been on photography assignments in Antarctica, Ecuador and Argentina. When Matt’s not shooting photos he is climbing hard traditional routes all over the world, or paddling his backyard run on the Great Falls of the Potomac.
Papua New Guinea Environmental Background
Politically, New Britain is a part of Papua New Guinea but geographically, it’s a part of the Bismark Island chain and represents the largest island in the designated biologic hotspot of the East Melanesian Islands. This long string of islands runs from north of Papua New Guinea southeast into the Pacific Ocean. For many species, millennia spent isolated on these mostly volcanic outposts have resulted in very high levels of endemism. A few species include the New Britain Water Rat and the Sanford’s fish eagle. That isolation has also created a landscape of remarkable cultural diversity. On New Britain alone, thirty plus distinct languages are spoken.
Much of that cultural integrity is still in tact, but since New Britain’s first substantial contact with the western world in the 1880s, parts of the island have seen rapid change and a push toward development. Throughout the rule of three different colonial empires, WWI and WWII battles, contact with the outside world was refined to the coastlines. But the past fifty years have seen a rapid expansion of the oil palm and logging industries. It has created a labor vacuum and has made West New Britain, Papua New Guinea’s second most diverse province. Though the industry is still largely confined to the lowlands, the crop has expanded annually by six percent and is beginning to following international logging operations into New Britain’s highlands. The tradeoff many indigenous tribes are making is the environmental integrity of their customary lands for roads and better access to education, medicine, jobs and overall development. It has left only 25 percent of the region’s forests in tact.
The goal of our Conservation through Exploration expedition was to show local tribes, such as the Nakanai, that eco-tourism and conservation could be alternative forms of development.
Papua New Guinea Expedition Overview
In October of 2007, the EP crew returned from a two-month kayaking, caving and scientific expedition on Papua New Guinea’s largest offshore island of New Britain. Exploring in this designated biological hotspot required navigating in a country defined by the 800 plus distinct languages, a terrain cut by 19 feet of annual rainfall, unrelenting jungles and river gorges that look as if they were cut with scalpels. It’s an extremely difficult place to run an expedition. But with the assistance of David Mather of Hargy Oil Palms, the EP crew discovered world-class whitewater, astonishing bio-diversity, and a landscape on the brink of change.
The crew spent most of August 2007, on the shores of the Hargy Caldera, a pristine lake and jungle, with geologist John Lane, herpetologist Ralph Cutter and their team of scientists and cavers. The crew worked closely with the Nakanai tribe to present conservation as an alternative to logging within this designated biologic hotspot. The project was a huge success. New species of fish, frogs, butterflies and an active volcano were discovered and plans were made for a follow up research expedition to return to Lake Hargy in 2008. The future looks bright for the establishment of a long-term research station with Chico State University, the first step toward conserving this land.
Following the completion of the research expedition, cavers John Lane, Mike Lane, Haley Cutter and the EP crew spent September exploring the caves and rivers of New Britain’s karst limestone interior. After hiking across six drainages and negotiating with three different tribes, the crew arrived to the village of Tuke. This tiny Kol village, a tribe whose first contact with the outside world wasn’t until the 1950s, is built near the source of the Pandi River, a cave. From Tuke, the crew launched an expedition into the Southern Hemisphere’s largest cave system to find the Pandi’s true source – roughly six kilometers underground. After ten days in the village, the team began the first kayaking expedition of the island. They first descented forty some miles of the Class V river, survived a crocodile attack and kayaked off a fifty plus foot waterfall. EP’s wrap up of the Conservation through Exploration expedition resulted in an Adventurer of the Year award by National Geographic Adventure to expedition leader Trip Jennings. Now, the team is back in the States, gearing up for their expedition to China.
View Larger Map
Click on map points to follow the Pandi River adventure.
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Conservation Efforts
Perhaps more than anywhere in the world, conservation in Papua New Guinea is challenged by regulations on customary land ownership. Traditional landowners and tribes retain roughly 95 percent of the country’s land. This system, through absolutely incredible and unique to the world, creates a double-edged sword for both conservationists and those interested in resource extraction. Because of the diversity of landowners, developing conservation programs often takes years of negotiations. The system has effectively slowed development. Organizations involved in the East Melanesian Islands include the Nature Conservancy, the World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International and Chico State University.
